Librettist Mark Campbell opened his stage adaptation of The Shining last week at Minnesota Opera. Based on Stephen King's horror novel turned silver-screen-psychological-nightmare by director Stanley Kubrick, the production is a collaboration between Campbell and Pulitzer-winning composer Paul Moravec.

The opera stars Brian Mulligan as failed writer Jack Torrance (a part made famous by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 film) with Kelly Kaduce as his wife, Wendy. Lyricist Campbell, who built the story from King's text rather than Kubrick's screenplay, revealed to the Washington Posthis hopes for a fearful audience reaction:

"I want them to be moved by the story. I want them to be scared," Campbell said. "I would love if this were the first opera in history that engendered a response from an audience that was: 'Don't go in there!' -- the way a horror film does."

"I thought it was one of the most ingenious and exciting stories of the genre I had read. It seemed to strike an extraordinary balance between the psychological and the supernatural in such a way as to lead you to think that the supernatural would eventually be explained by the psychological."